School District Sets Up Committee to Find Savings

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 08:20 PM

Prince George, B.C. – School District 57’s Board of Education has approved setting up a special committee that will do the initial work in reviewing all of the operations of the School District in order to come up with recommendations on where changes can be made to meet the financial challenges facing the School District.

“We have been forced into this situation and the timelines are short “ says Superintendent Brian Pepper. Because there are tight timelines for suggesting change, such as contractual obligations and legislative requirements, Superintendent Pepper says the Committee will be made up of himself, the District Secretary Treasurer, Director of Human Resources, 2 Assistant Superintendents and the Director of Finance.

Trustees are not part of the committee, nor are partner groups such as the Teachers or the members of CUPE, but Superintendent Pepper says the idea is to have a report ready for review during an in camera session in December, and discussed in public in January.

The report is to include recommendations and a mid to long term plan to :

Support structures and services ( staff reductions)
School configurations
School viability including recommended closures
School and feeder school boundaries

Pepper says with enrolment continuing to decline, that translates into few dollars available to provide services to schools and students “Provisions in union contracts and legislation regarding school closures are such that there is considerable urgency.”

Pepper says meaningful public consultation would take about six weeks with about 2 meetings per week before making any final decisions.

Trustee Roxanne Ricard is concerned about the ability to have that consultation “We are under the gun here, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and this is not the way we like to do business” but she says the reality is the timeframe is very tight, as staff changes and school closures must be announced by the end of April.

“It is a daunting task” says Chair Lynn Hall, “This requires a strategic look at the District and how we do business. We are no longer a District of 21 thousand students, we have 15 thousand students, and this strategic look needs to take place.”

School District 57 was already facing a multi- million dollar shortfall when the Province announced there would be no more annual facility grants. That loss of funding, combined with fewer dollars because of declining enrollment, the unknown impact of the HST, full day kindergarten and increased MSP premiums for staff have put the School District in a deep financial hole.

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Posted on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 08:20 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Outwest on October 14 2009 8:49 AM

Let everyone pay there own MSP premiums, Pensioners have to and we make much less then Teachers and the rest of the School District. I know it says so in our Contract, but I tell there is no more Money .

Posted by: Flash on October 14 2009 3:45 PM

OutWest,

The government negotiates a contract that says that the teachers will get raises and not have to pay MSP. The government then short changes the education system and you think the best way to fix this is to have teachers subsidize the lies and deceptions that the Liberals have brought on us. The government lied about finances, so the teachers are being asked to ignore the contract and fork over parts of their raises to keep the schools running. I don't think that's the answer. I know a lot of teachers who spend a lot of their own money for their students already. And they didn't get a instant 30% raise and a cost of living increase every year.